And in those windup animations, Preston says player feedback began to reveal something about how they could best structure enemy encounters. With so little other information available to the player, Preston says he and his team had to convey as much as possible through immediate visual clues, like creature silhouettes and windup animations.

Then you’re off, ready to be smashed by whatever creature stands in your way.

A short tutorial sets up the rules about attacking, recharging your gun, and dashing. At the outset, you aren’t given a lot of clues about how fighting works. Preston starts describing Hyper Light Drifter’s quest for “fairness” by focusing on the game’s combat. But all too often “mysterious worlds” and “difficult combat encounters” can leave players flummoxed and dispirited.įor Hyper Light Drifter, lead designer Alex Preston chose to solve this problems by constantly asking himself and his teammates at Heart Machine a simple question: What’s fair, and what’s unfair, when it comes to designing scenarios and levels? A Bunch of Stupid Monsters Can Become a Smart Horde The popularity of D ark Souls suggests that players want to explore mysterious settings and endure punishing combat encounters in the name of a more challenging experience. Many developers dream of creating such a game. How do you design a game where you deliberately reveal as little information to the player as possible, while still building a space where they understand how to progress and survive in combat? Its players seem excited to charge down mysterious dungeons, only to die over and over again. The game has garnered great reviews and has stayed solidly fixed on the Top Steam Sellers chart.

Hyper light drifter walkthrough steam